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Clinton Barton
"I can't miss. Why? I'm on a team with super-humans and a god in case you've forgotten. I gave up a lot for this gig. I could have walked away had a good simple life a ton of times but I wanted to play with the big boys and if I miss, it means I'm just another jerk with a bow. It means I've been fooling myself this whole time... and that's why I never miss." Character Stat Sheet Public Information Hawkeye is 'that guy with the bow' on the Avengers. He's been around for a few years but doesn't have the same fame as the original guys or Ms Marvel, or heck even Black Panther. Clinton Francis Barton is, well first off never call him Clinton or Francis, he's Clint, and who is he? An ex-con, and a guy who lives in a crappy walk up in Brooklyn that probably belongs to the Russian Mob or something. Background Clint Barton’s Cavalcade of Bad Life Decisions Bad Life Decision #1 – Being Born - Okay this one wasn’t my fault and is pretty dark. Though before you think I’m prone to digging out the razor blades and My Chemical Romance CDs, think again. I mean seriously though as far as my parents go having me, bad decision. Dad’s butcher shop wasn’t pulling in a ton of dough and what he did make Dad spent on booze. Mom didn’t stop him drinking and stayed at home, and they already had Barney. So, adding another kid to the mix was pretty dumb. Not that I’m not grateful, but seriously, bad idea for them and definitely one for me because Dad was always happy to take out his lack of booze money on me and Barn, be that with yelling or with punches. It was mostly punches. Bad Life Decision #2 – Setting Aunt T’s Cat on Fire - First off, totally an accident. I’m not a psycho. Also, the cat was fine. Anyhow big family reunion, my Dad’s side, we’re not the most welcome guests but aunt Teresa’s side of the Bartons is old school and has manners and stuff so we get invited anyhow. Anyhow, it’s boring so me and Barn we steal a bottle of booze from the bar and get to drinking. Some of Aunt T’s kids come find us and join in. Anyhow some stuff was said and well we ended up scrapping at which point Mitzy aunt T’s Persian cat gets splashed with booze in the scuffle and runs out into the back yard where they’re presenting grandma Barton her 70th birthday cake. One thing leads to another and whoosh cat goes up in flames. Fortunately she gets put out right quick and but for some singed fur she’s okay. Still after that Barn and me get the blame, and we’re sort of exiles from the rest of the Bartons. No big deal at the time but a couple of months later Dad drives drunk and slams his car and Mom into a tree. Both of them croak, and the family doesn’t want anything to do with Barn and me, the family psychos. Mom’s family is pretty much all dead at this point too except for a couple of relatives so old they can't take of themselves let alone kids. So we go to Saint Ignatius’ Home for Orphaned boys. Fun times, if you like constant fights with older kids and nuns with rulers and freakishly strong arms. So, yeah, again, fun times. Bad Life Decision #3 – Running Away to Join the Circus - Cliché right? Most of the people I tell this to don’t believe me, or make some crack about ‘what was I born in the 30’s’ but seriously, me and Barn, we did it we stowed away with Carson’s Carnival of Wonders. Started out crappy, literally. They almost called the cops on us at first but when we talked them into keeping us, they let us muck out the animal pens. Seriously have you /smelled/ elephant crap? Anyhow, for me the shit work didn’t last long which brings me to… Bad Life Decision #4 - Trusting Circus Creeps - After a while of mucking out the pens, helping with set up and tear down (which was waaay more fun) and so on, I got approached by Jacques Duquesne who was the Swordsman back then. Basically a sword an knife act, or so I thought. He tapped me to be his apprentice and because it involved a whole lot less of seeing the backsides of elephants I agreed. It was hard work, but he taught me to fight with a sword and throw knives. I was way better at the throwing thing, but still, he kept at the other parts too. Also learned some acrobatics, how to work out, all sorts of cool stuff. It was pretty great. Barney was jealous as all hell, but he had been noticed most of our lives and I felt it was my turn. As it turned out, being noticed wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. See Jac was a crook, he robbed other crooks, and I went along sometimes to watch his back. I’ll admit it, it was fun and heck these guys we were robbing were crooks. So, what the hell right? Well that lasted until Carson shorted Jac on his pay because the Circus wasn’t doing so good. Jacques robbed the payroll for himself and was about to skip out with me and Barney when I had a change of heart and stole the money back and tried to bring it to Carson. Didn’t work out, Jacques got to me and beat the ever living crap out of me and took the money anyhow. Bad Life Decision #5 – Letting Barney Go - Don’t really want to talk about this one. Needless to say, Barney was pissed I blew our shot at a better life (even if it was of the ‘of crime’ variety) with Jac. We argued and he bailed on the circus to go join the army. I could have asked him to stay but I was too mad at him. Hadn’t I just risked my life to do the right thing? Why was he mad at me? Bad Life Decision #6 – Trusting Circus Creeps Part II - So, I tried the hero thing, didn’t work, crook thing too, so when I healed I caught back up with the Circus and ended up falling in with Buck Chisholm who was calling himself Trickshot. He was pretty much cut from the same cloth as Jac, but at that point I didn’t care. He was the one who introduced me to the bow and worked me every day until I was good enough to come out in the field with him. It was pretty good, we did some solo jobs, then we bailed on Carsons and hooked up with the Circus of Crime for a bit for some ensemble work, then we went back to some solo stuff. The last job we did together ended up going south. We were hitting this mob creep named Marko and it turned out my brother Barney was working security for him. I didn’t find this out until I’d put two arrows into Barney’s chest. I tried to get him help but Buck said no, and when I tried anyhow he put two arrows in me. Still managed to call the ambulance and escape, but after that word was Barney was dead. Bad Life Decision #7 – Picking up the Loot - Crawled into a bottle for a bit after Barney’s death and when I came out again, I decided I was done with this crime stuff. I took what I had left of my ill-gotten gains and started outfitting myself to be a hero like Iron Man, or one of the Fantastic Four. So, that done I set out on the streets of New York (Where else? New York is to wannabe superheroes as LA is to wannabe actors) to fight crime. So come across a robbery in progress after hours at a jewellery store, I take the bad guys down and then pick up the loot to put it back in the store when the cops show up. Naturally they didn’t accept ‘I was putting it back’ as an excuse and I had to get out of there. Ended up being wanted after that and bailing on New York for a bit. Bad Life Decision #8 – Getting *ahem* Into Bed with Hot Russian Spies - So after the New York thing, I ended up running into Natasha Romanov, she was hot, Russian and was willing to get me some money and a new ID if I worked with her for a bit. Really didn’t have much of a choice, and when we began sleeping together I really didn’t want one. I know she was doing it to control me, at least at first, but hey, she was hot and I needed what she was promising (the IDs and money, sicko!). Anyhow it came down to eliminating someone I wouldn’t do it, it messed up the job, we fought, and she left, but she did leave the promised money and ID too. I bailed but my work for Natasha got me on some pretty powerful radar. They nabbed and while they couldn’t pin much on me, I wouldn’t talk and I got four years on the Raft. Prison was rough, especially since my old job involved ripping most of my fellow inmates off when we were all on the outside. A lot of guys tried to settle the score, it didn’t work out so good for them. While I was in there I decided to try and go straight, figuring if I was going to go to jail for doing dirt same as for doing hero stuff, the hero stuff made me feel better about myself. So, I spent my time inside getting ready and after two years I got early parole and was a free man. Bad Life Decision #9 – Joining the Avengers – Actually I don’t regret this one at all but hey the format has been established, so why change it now. Guess you can say it’s a bad call based on how suicidal it is for a normal guy to roll with gods and super-geniuses with tech suits, but hey, it’s good work and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. Typical of my luck, I joined up when there were two Avengers groups, through the help of Edwin Jarvis the Avengers Butler, I applied for the main team which was being run by the Department of Superhuman Affairs at the time, naturally with my record I was a no go. Fortunately Eddie (Jarvis hates when I call him that) set me up with the other Avengers who had quit when the government took over and were doing their thing from above a bar instead of a mansion. More my style. We had a good time, did some good, but eventually we crossed the government and were ordered to surrender ourselves. I was one of the guys who didn’t. Already factored more jail time into my superhero equation, so, I kept going. Did end up getting pinched, brought to the Vault this time, which is pretty lightweight as prisons go, all that time alone, no thugs to wail on you in the chow line. Anyhow wasn’t there more than a couple of months before I got sprung by the deal Tony Stark struck with the government to get his Avengers back and to get pardons for all the guys who got locked up (who it turned out was only me). Anyhow I hung out on the sidelines as a reservist for the most part after I got out. All the big names were back on the roster wasn’t really a spot for a guy with a bow and arrow. Then the Merge happened, and I ended up on a trip to Earth-24, met their Avengers who call themselves the Justice League, and came back to our world to fight the big fight against Loki and the forces of chaos, which sounds like a metal band, I know. Got beat up in the battle and ended up spending a few weeks in hospital as a result. Bad Life Decision #10 – Not Keeping Up on Family - So, I get beat up end up in the hospital and while I’m recovering at home after that I get a visit from SHIELD about someone using Trickshot’s MO to knock over tech firms. Naturally I get curious and I am able to see enough about the places being hit on the SHIELD paperwork to figure out where to start looking. Long story short, what’s going on is it’s my brother, who had survived his injuries and tracked down Trickshot to get trained up as a bowman. We get to fighting, neither of us really want to kill each other but we make a mess of the place we’re fighting in the lab of this guy Baron Zemo one of those old Hydra guys from Cap comics (or maybe his son? Anyhow same outfit). Anyhow one of our arrows sets something off, and the place blows up. I get out and there’s no Barney. I look, SHIELD looks, nothing, he’s gone, again. Two things happen after he’s declared dead, one I get a call from the Bank of Latveria letting me know there is an account in my name full of Barney’s dirty money which is now /my/ dirty money and two Child Protective Services calls to let me know that Barney has a kid whose mother was badly injured in the Merge and he’s currently in foster care. Weird right? Anyhow I spring the kid, Francis, take care of him until his Mom gets better. Turns out he's pretty great even if I am a crappy uncle. When Francis' Mom does get better I use some of Barney’s money to get them a place in my building. It's nice I guess, but Francis' mom has problems. Not really her fault but anyhow, when things are good I sometimes come down to have dinner with them, when things are bad, Francis crashes on my couch. It's not the best solution but it works and I don't mind having him around to be honest. Bad Life Decisions #11 – Joining the Avengers Take II - Okay still don’t regret this, but anyhow, after the Merge the Avengers start re-assembling and Tony Stark asks me to join the new team, that includes none other than Captain America, and will be assembling in the new fancy Avengers Tower. It’s sort of a big step for a boys home kid like me joining the superhero big leagues full time, but I think I’m ready, no, scratch that I really, really hope I’m ready, but time will tell. Personality Clint could have been a lot of things in life, but he's chosen to be a hero (even if he was a criminal for a little while on the way) he knows he could do other things and doesn't care. It's what he's wanted to be his whole life and he has put his life and freedom on the line to be there. That said, he's also more than a little worried about screwing it all up. He's made bad choices before and been burned for it, he doesn't want it to happen again when the spot light is on him, so he works hard and has a bit of a thin skin when it comes to criticisms. However he doesn't let any of this show if he can help it, he always has a joke or a snarky comment to make and hides his insecurities with a hair trigger temper. That said, he tries to be a loyal friend and when the chips are down he's willing to go the distance to do the right thing. Logs Category:Marvel Features Category:Regular Characters Category:Humans Category:Taken Characters Category:Avengers Category:Family Matters Category:Intellect Category:Shared Souls Category:Raw Talent